Pokemon Day: pokemon day marks 30 years since Pocket Monsters launched in Japan
pokemon day arrives as Pokémon will swap trading cards for birthday cards as it turns 30 this week, a milestone that traces back to the launch of Pocket Monsters in Japan. The anniversary highlights a franchise that grew from a 1996 Game Boy release into a global cultural phenomenon.
How Pocket Monsters began
It is 30 years since a little game called Pocket Monsters launched in Japan, marking the start of a phenomenon that would evolve into a behemoth. When the first games were released on Nintendo's Game Boy handheld in 1996, they weren't expected to be a huge hit. Strong word-of-mouth and the console's low price helped the game sell more than one million copies in its first year on sale.
The rise of Pokémania
An animated TV series, movies and the spin-off Trading Card Game helped to turn the property into a full-on craze so huge the press gave it a name - "Pokémania. " It became such a sensation that schools started to ban children from bringing the cards to the playground.
Pokémon Go! and global reach
The brand sparked a second global trend with the launch of the mobile phone game Pokémon GO, which used a device's GPS and camera to place monsters in the real world in 2016. That app has since been downloaded more than a billion times, and the franchise is reportedly the highest-grossing media franchise in history, continuing to reach new generations of fans across the world.
Battles and trainer gameplay
Battles between rival trainers have always been at the heart of Pokémon games. Pokémon has always been about playing the part of a trainer, catching and collecting monsters before battling them against others. Those core mechanics remain central to why the games and related products attract players.
Fans, streamers and accessibility
Newsbeat has been asking some of the franchise's fans why they love the series, why it appeals to so many people, and why it continues to prove so popular. Pokémon streamer Josh Rosenberg, better known as Jrose11, has grown up with the series and believes the franchise's accessibility is one of the keys to its enduring success. The video game fan tells Newsbeat it's stayed relevant for so many years because it's so "unique in that there's not just one way to play it. "
Rosenberg expanded on that idea in a longer remark: "I think what's magical about Pokemon is that not only do you have thousands of creatures, all of whom are memorable and well-designed, but you have a game that can be played in so many different ways, and none of those ways are incorrect, " he says. For fans and players, pokemon day is a chance to celebrate that range of ways to enjoy the series.
Covid-19 and renewed interest
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, there was an explosion in Pokémon-related content, and Pokémon TCG in particular saw a big increase in interest. That surge in activity across games, cards and online communities has fed into the wider anniversary moment.
As Pokemon Day is observed this week, the full sequence of developments—from Pocket Monsters on the Game Boy in 1996, through the animated series and trading cards that sparked Pokémania, to the 2016 arrival of Pokémon GO and the pandemic-era boom in Pokémon TCG—helps explain why the franchise remains a cultural force three decades on.
